Onboarding buddies are exactly what your new hires need

We at Aboard live for improving the employee experience. As a start to that mission, we have focused on helping teams setup and deliver better employee onboarding. One key element to an effective onboarding plan is the inclusion of an onboarding buddy system. Companies of all shapes and sizes (yes, smaller startups and businesses) should incorporate a new hire buddy program in some way shape or form. We define the buddy program as:

A system where an existing employee partners up with a new employee to support them throughout their onboarding.

A buddy system is a lightweight addition to any onboarding plan and has numerous benefits for everyone involved. To focus on the new employee in particular, a buddy system can provide 3 benefits:

• Having more context on the company and your role
• Becoming productive more quickly
• Being more satisfied with your decision to take the job

Context

As a new employee starts in their new role, they will (should!) be bombarded with information from a variety of sources. Whether it's the employee handbook, policies for everything under the sun, or meetings & presentations from key team members, that new team member has a lot to absorb.

One thing that is not so easily captured in writing or video is the actual context & culture of that organization. This is something that is much better conveyed from an onboarding buddy. Through time spent interacting and in discussion with their buddy, a new employee can more easily gain understanding on how things work. This can include things like who relevant stakeholders are, how to navigate team structures, and even how to be more strategic when problem solving.

With all of this, the new employee will more seamlessly transition into the team and their role.

Productivity

With more organizational context in hand, a new employee is well on their way to becoming productive faster. This is the next domino to fall by introducing an onboarding buddy program.

Microsoft analyzed the effectiveness of their own onboarding program while running it as a pilot. They found 97% of new employees became productive more quickly when they met with their onboarding buddy at least 8 times in their first 90 days.

To break that down, that would mean having a new employee meet with their onboarding buddy at most once per week within their first 3 months. Pretty low ask of the onboarding buddy to spare a bit of their time each week to interact with a new hire. In fact, onboarding buddies generally enjoy this opportunity to support or coach new team members. The increase in productivity for each new employee will far outweigh the investment the onboarding buddy makes.

So far we've shown that an onboarding buddy program helps new employees gain more context on their work environment which contributes to a decrease in time-to-productivity. Let's talk about how this plays into retention.

Satisfaction

It can be extremely hard to find & retain the right talent. In fact, Facebook believed that there would be 1 million unfilled programming jobs in 2020. If an organization is fortunate enough to attract and "land" one of these sought after professionals, there needs to be a heavy investment and focusing on satisfying that person. This ensures they are happy in their role and will be more willing to stick around for the long haul.

Once again, the onboarding buddy plays a significant role in increasing new employee satisfaction. Back to the Microsoft study, when compared to those employees who did not have an onboarding buddy, 36% of new hires were more satisfied with their onboarding experience after 90 days.

This sharp increase in satisfaction with their onboarding experience will have lasting effects on how productive and happy that new employee will be. In the bigger picture, this will mean employees who stick around for a longer tenure with their employer while reducing the hefty cost of replacing them if they leave.

Need we say more?

The facts speak for themselves, an onboarding buddy program is a smart addition to any onboarding plan. It can be easily implemented and very lightweight.

Aboard helps teams setup and run a buddy system by ensuring everyone knows what is going, from the hiring manager to the buddy and new employee. We are happy to show you how by grabbing some time here or signing up for your free 14-day trial!